Abstract

In this seminar, I will talk about my research on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals that explores the complex relationship between science and business. I focus on the question: can science be a business? Using the case of biotechnology as a frame of reference, I argue that science-based businesses face three challenges:

1) the need to manage persistent and pervasive uncertainty
2) the need to integrate across diverse knowledge bases and
3) the need to learn from cumulative experience.

I argue that existing organizational structures and institutional arrangements struggle when all three are present, and this helps to explain the challenges of the biotech sector. I will then present some preliminary thinking about how these three dimensions may be useful as a way to distinguish innovation challenges across a broad array of sectors.